Nearly 54,000 people were rushed to hospitals last summer due to heatstroke – a four-fold increase from the previous year. Last year also logged a grim all-time record of over 1,700 heatstroke-related deaths.

The highest number of people affected so far this year was in Aichi Prefecture, located in the southern gut of Honshu island, where 50 fell ill. In the capital, meanwhile, about 25 people have already been hospitalized. While the mercury has so far, on average, lingered in the mid-70s Fahrenheit in the city, the heat indoors has been unseasonably stifling as businesses and households drastically pare back use of air conditioning amid the power crunch.

As the Japan Meteorological Agency again predicts a particularly hot three months ahead, some locales are taking preventive steps. Saitama, a suburb on the outskirts of Tokyo, is telling elderly residents – the most vulnerable — to skip energy saving when things start heating up. Welfare workers have recently started visiting elderly residents at home urging them not to go overboard on saving electricity, according to state broadcaster NHK on Wednesday.

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Japan Real Time is a newsy, concise guide to what works, what doesn’t and why in the one-time poster child for Asian development, as it struggles to keep pace with faster-growing neighbors while competing with Europe for Michelin-rated restaurants. Drawing on the expertise of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires, the site provides an inside track on business, politics and lifestyle in Japan as it comes to terms with being overtaken by China as the world’s second-biggest economy. You can contact the editors at japanrealtime@wsj.com